Jumpin Jack Flash

I don't really see the 'Gardner Thing'.

Quite right hipshot, "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" refers to Micks birthplace, Dartford Kent during the height of the blitz. "Dartford was very much in the front line during the Second World War. The town and surrounding countryside was a target for air raids by German bombers. German planes which could not reach central London often deposited their bomb loads on Dartford before returning home. Local armaments factories were also a target for bombers.

Unmanned flying bombs aimed at London sometimes fell short of their intended target and landed in and around the borough. Over 13,000 houses in the Dartford area were damaged as a result of the bombing. The number of bombs recorded by local ARP officials included 6,000 high explosive bombs, twenty-three land mines, 200 oil bombs, seventy-three phosphorous bombs and an estimated 200,000 incendiary bombs. 150 local people were killed in the air raids and another 700 injured." read more at http://www.dartfordarchive.org.uk/20th_century/military_ww2.shtml

The whole song is a prett strait forward autobiograhy in my opinion, I'm not sure if "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag" refers to his mother or a school teacher but corporal punishment at home and school was very common until the 80's explaining "I was schooled with a strap right across my back".

The 60s for Micks generation created an escape from the misery of the post war years and a liberation from the rules and views of their parents generation, thats why mick sings with such conviction even to this day, "But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas"

I think the best version of this has to be seen as well as heard on the Voodoo Lounge Video. You can really see how much it means to Ron Wood to also be a Rolling Stone.

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I'm an artist and I've pulled a few fat ones off in my time quite by accident. So I can accept that the most mundane crap can be stuck together to make an accidental hit at times, but "Gardener"?

The hurricane and howling at a mom all day doesn't say, "lawnmower man" to me. Sorry. Unless Lucifer did their lawn? Maybe that was it! Was the B-Side to this single, "Satan Is My Grounds Keeper"? In fact, I could stomach the lot of them shooting up heroin with Legion before I could take "Gardener". "Getting High With Satan" was probably the track's original name, based on what I hear about Keith Richards and his outworldly drug repertoire at that time. I've been told Keith did more drugs than there WERE in the 60s.

i can say in relative confidence, that the song jumpin jack flash was when keith and mick where in keiths redlands mansion and keiths gardner, Jack Dyer walked past the window at 6am, schwelching loudly with his soaking boots on the path, mick was startled and keith explained it was "Jumpin Jack" and that night they laid down the base for the classic song. As regards a heroin perspective, this perhaps may be a side meaning, at a later stage... but that is how the song was created originally.

The gardener thing is what I read too. Never know--it could be something they made up. It's a great song--Keith's favorite. The guitar riff in this song is basically the same as Satisfaction which was purely a Keith Richards invention. No one disputes that yet Bill Wyman still cries that he wrote the JJF riff.

They invented a character named jumpin jack flash then tell his story. They give him attributes similar to other historicl figures in order to bolster his greatness and give him a big mystique. They know that jack flash is heroin, but the song isn't literally about heroin. its something called a metaphor. song writers use it but its mostly used in literature. Its where they attribute the characteristics of one thing toa completely nuther thing. In this case, they make up this character named Jumpin' Jack flash, give him a bunch of amazingly legendary characteristics, make him out to be some kind of amazing guy that can't die and cant goes through hell and still keeps on ticking. So he isn't literally jesus, he is just given jesus like attributes to express the legendary status theyre trying to, you know, build him up with. He's freeking Jumpin' Jack Flash. Need I say more?

abuse enabling decepetion

I think the line about Jack Flash sitting on a candlestick in the song "American Pie" is about Mick Jagger and the Stones.

also, i always thought it was about not worrying about the horrible yet trivial things in life, because they'll all be over in a second and you might not even remember them in the future. i dunno, maybe i'm overanalyzing it

but it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. yeah, song goes great to the end of fear and loathing too. i was unsure of who this song was by just because it wasn't on the movie's soundtrack cd, but it's pretty obvious that it's the stones. and who gives a shit what it's about man, it's kind of a song where there doesn't really need to be a meaning.

I wish I was Keith Richard's gardener with my boots full of millionares mud and a head full of stories